This was a once in a life time trip and I wanted it to be a spectacular one. When one is in a romantic mood its always best to stay close to mother nature and far away from the busy world. This is what we did in our little paradise nation within 10 days. So let the pictures say our story. Our first and second day of relaxation was at Back of beyond Kahandamodara. This was absolutely the paradise we searched for. Two days of perfect harmony with many activities to pass ones time like boat rides in lagoons, cycling and etc. Thanks Yohan for building such a lovely place. The staff was simply the best; you don’t get good guys like them at 5 start hotels.

It’d been a long time since Harinda and I’d gone on a journey together and when he said that he was gonna get 6 days straight off, I decided to reap the benefits. Hari’s initial plan to visit “Eli Hatha” in Maliboda had to be called off due to intermittent rains and falling on a sudden plan B (in fact it’d been nagging at me for the past year or so), I suggested we visit Pitadeniya searching for some more waterfalls (possibly following Niroshana’s Steps) in and around Neluwa, Lankagama and Pitadeniya. As per Niro’s report, he’d mentioned about Wedan Ella (unfortunately not been able to visit her) on Neluwa-Thawalama Road. When I mentioned this to Hari, he said that one of his friends, Gabriel is from Thawalama and I prompted him to get the info about this Wedan Ella.

Rambukoluwa is a traditional village at Knuckles forest reserve. This might be a vanishing village in near future as they have planned to build a reservoir by crossing Kalu Ganga. Though Rambukoluwa is not covered by this reservoir, villagers are asked to leave the village.

Mighty Etipola Mountain drew my attention in two times. First experience was in our climb to Brandy rock (1130m) which was situated just below and front of Etipola Mountain. At that time we were wonder what is this Mountain. Then in my visit to Selagama mini world’s end, I noticed Etipola Mountain and it stimulated me to climb it.

We took a Welimada-Bogahakumbura bus (alternatively you can take a Welimada-Boralanda bus which will take you to the turn off towards Alawathugoda) and got off at Bogahakumbura town and hired a tuk-tuk to reach the destination which was about 3-4km away. Surprisingly enough most of the people knew about the waterfall even though it’s not a prominent one. The road is under construction and in a somewhat bad condition.

We reached the Alawathugoda village passing the Community Hall where we had to walk as the road had been concreted and left to rest. It was a good 600-800m walk which took its toll on Podi who kept panting all the way. Unfortunately there was very little water and it made us feel very down. Well, you can’t always be lucky and see them in full flow I guess.

Taking time off to relax saw us heading deep down south a few weeks ago. Our destination was Sella Kataragama where SLAF has chalets for its officers. Travelling was easy as we took E1 to Matara. The drive was a breeze! A short stop at Devundra was all what we needed.

This was a long awaited trip for Wuminda and me. I could gather enough information about Mannar and places on the way to Mannar by reading Lakdasun reports. We started the journey from Colombo around 7.30am due to my job commitments. On the way we have visited some other places and reached Mannar around 8.30pm. (I will discuss it later by a separate report). We were warmly welcome by Mr.Rohan at Four Tees Inn.

Every university has its favourite destination and this time I picked one of those places for a change. Been a Colombo Uni guy our favourite destination was the western coastal line other universities like Peradeniya has Hanthana range, Uva Wellassa has Namunukula & Sabaragamuwa has Adara kanda. As usual I searched for literature on the web but found nothing convincing about “adara kanda” though there were many images of Sabaragamuwa university students hiking in hundreds. So the best way to get more info is to explore it ourselves.

Waterfalls have always been my great passion and will always be. It’s such pleasure to go see them flowing down in their pristine white veils looking like angels descended straight from heaven. However it’s so painful and depressing to witness the tragic situation enveloping these gorgeous virgins by the vicious, greedy and ignorant people in our country.

The future of them looks so uncertain and I wonder how many of them will still be standing in a few years. So my aim to go see as many of these beauties has to be intensified especially in the monsoon season. I was glad when Hasitha called asking what my plans were for Poson. Tony and I celebrated Vesak skirting around Deraniyagala and the prospects of doing something similar on Poson lifted my spirits tenfold. I suggested we visit Bambarella following Niroshana’s footsteps. Even though Hasi had been there before, he still wanted to do it once again as there had been very little water at the time due to the drought.

Ambokka which is an isolated mountain situated at the border of Kurunegala-Matale districts. (Border of Wayamba-Central provinces). It is also called Kondagala කොන්ඩගල (looks like a bunch of hair) and Salagama Kanda (සැලගම කන්ද). Special feature of this mountain is, most of the time peak is wrapped by the mist. No other peaks in this area are covered by the mist like this.

Ritigala the giant of ancient capital Anuradhapura stands tall with an altitude of 766m and is the best view point of north central Sri Lanka. Ritigala is an important asset to us in terms of history, folklore and bio diversity. It is the birth place of Malwatu oya and during the North – East monsoons it receives heavy showers more than any other place in the region. Most of the time there is a veil of mist covering its summit.

Just after Hari’s Doowili Eli Hike, I received a call asking if I’d like to join him for a leisure journey as he felt he deserved a break after the mighty hike. I too didn’t mind one so long as it met my expectations. Fortunately, Hari managed to convince Sanketha too to join and we decided to go to Elpitiya where one of the least heard and explored Andahelena Falls is located.

He’d come across Malaka’s Trip Report about this waterfall and the nearby Monastery, Diwankaralena and we thought it’d be a good opportunity for us to visit them at a snail’s speed. He set the date for 15 May and it turned out I will of course not have a break as Tony and I were to visit waterfalls in Ratnapura and Deraniyagala on 13 and 14 May.

We set off around 6.30am on the 15th May in Sanketha’s car and I was grateful for that coz 550+km on two consecutive days sitting on the back of Tony’s old bike had taken its toll on me.